Helping young people become skillful, creative musicians.
HELPING YOUNG PEOPLE BECOME SKILLFUL, CREATIVE MUSICIANS
Kia ora and welcome!
I’m Kathryn, a NZ based music teacher, pianist and composer.
This is my site dedicated to my work in Music Education.
Here you’ll find information about piano lessons and the school resources I’ve put together to support NZ NCEA Level 3 students studying Harmonic and Tonal Conventions.
As well as being able to read traditional music notation, many young people want to be able to improvise, create and play music by ear.
The goal of my work is to help students develop these skills and help them become versatile musicians, gaining a life long enjoyment and appreciation of music.
KIND WORDS ABOUT MY TEACHING
I worked alongside Kathryn Lauder for three years, and have found her to be a truly outstanding teacher. As a teacher of many years’ experience in a variety of schools myself, I have seldom worked with a person as gifted or as dedicated as Kathryn. She is one of those rare people who is extremely talented, both as a performing musician and as a composer, who also has the ability to inspire students, and the patience and dedication to help them achieve amazing things.
Trina Sellers, Colleague - Diocesan School for Girls 2003
CREATIVE PROJECTS
White Cat – Movement 1 from ‘Miss Brodie’s Cats’
The three short movements that make up my orchestral pieces, ‘Miss Brodie’s Cats’ were inspired by the three feline characters in my charge when house sitting for a week in Onehunga. They’re dedicated to Sally Brodie, whose sense of humour is infectious. ‘White Cat’, movement one from the set, was recorded and then performed by the Auckland Philharmonnia in 2003.
Setting of Jenny Bornholdt’s poem, Instructions for how to get ahead of yourself while the light still shines
I set this fantastic poem, Instructions for how to get ahead of yourself while the light still shines by Jenny Bornholdt to music in 2002 when I was working at Diocesan School for Girls’ and wrote it especially for the Year 7 and 8 choir at the school at the time. I wanted to capture…
Aue Io – by Carol Storey, orchestration Kathryn Lauder
In 2016, I had the honour of orchestrating Carol Storey’s beautiful piece “Aue Io” for a performance by the Tauranga Intermediate School Choir, Members of Opus Orchestra, Taonga pūoro musicians: Horomono Hora and Joel Komene, conducted by Timothy Carpenter. You can view the performance below.